battery

the largest battery company in the world is no longer just about batteries

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The Chinese company specialized in the development of batteries has published results for the first quarter of 2026 that have left analysts speechless. Not because they are good, but because no one saw them coming. And the income has exceeded the forecasts of several analysis firms by 40%. The margin of error is so large that it only shows the obvious: that CATL It has long ceased to be just a battery company. What the numbers say. In the first quarter of 2026, CATL had a turnover of 129.1 billion yuan (about $18.9 billion), 52.5% more than in the same period of the previous year, according to they count from Reuters. Net profit grew 48.5% to 20.7 billion yuan. Analysts expected revenue growth of 35.7% and profit growth of 20.9%. The reality is that the numbers almost double the estimates. If the context of the successful year they had in 2025 is added, the image is just as groundbreaking, since according to the annual report The company’s own revenue that year reached 423.7 billion yuan, with a growth of 17%, and net profit rose 42%. Why analysts They have failed so much. Market consensus continued to treat CATL as a supplier of cells for electric cars. The problem is that this approach ignores two movements that are redefining the company. The first: energy storage, a business with higher margins than vehicle batteries, already represented around a quarter of the product the company shipped in the first quarter. According to data Production data collected by Hello China Tech, in April storage had climbed to 41.3% of total cell production, up from less than 20% a year earlier. The second movement: internationalization. Approximately a third of CATL’s revenue already comes from outside China. A Bet that explains everything. Energy storage is not a segment that CATL has joined by inertia. It is the logical consequence of a thesis: the world needs to store renewable energy on a massive scale. The war in Iran has skyrocketed global energy costs and accelerated demand for renewables, making storage systems critical infrastructure. CATL, which already led that market with a global share of 30.4% in 2025, according to SNE Research (for the fifth consecutive year), has arrived at the exact moment with the necessary capacity. And its shipments of batteries for storage have grown by 80% year-on-year in 2025. Europe as a lever for internationalization. The Debrecen plant, in Hungary, went into mass production during the first quarter of 2026. An investment of 7.3 billion euros to supply Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Stellantis and Volkswagen, with a planned capacity of 100 gigawatt-hours annually and a planned workforce of 9,000 people. This factory is proof that CATL is not content with being a supplier that exports cells, but rather a manufacturer with an industrial presence in the markets it serves. At home, dominating like never before. At the same time, CATL has reached a milestone in China that it had not achieved for five years. According to data from the Chinese Passenger Car Association collected According to CarNewsChina, its production share of electric vehicle batteries in the domestic market exceeded 50% in the first quarter of 2026. In the NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) type battery segment, that share reaches 81.6%. And in the LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) segment, where there is more competition, it reaches 41%, the highest level in four years. The world’s second largest manufacturer, BYD, fell to 13.4% global share, from 16% a year earlier. What CATL is today, beyond batteries. The company itself has been trying to change the story for some time. In your 2025 annual reportstates its ambition to become “a leading global zero-carbon technology company.” It may sound like corporate rhetoric, but it is worth noting that CATL has storage systems deployed in nearly 2,300 projects around the world. Its batteries power artificial intelligence data centers, including SenseTime’s in Shanghai, which the company says reduces electricity consumption by more than 10 million kilowatt-hours annually. It also has subsidiaries in the electric aviation sector and solutions for maritime transport zero emissions. It operates more than 1,000 battery exchange stations for passenger cars and more than 300 for heavy trucks. And it is building what it describes as the world’s first zero-carbon off-grid industrial park, in Shandong. ANDThe market has not yet it has finished processing. It’s not all good news. Morningstar analyst Vincent Sun warns that the automakers’ strategy of diversifying suppliers and cutting costs could “dilute CATL’s pricing power and put pressure on its unit profit.” When you are the dominant supplier, customers have incentives to reduce their dependence. Here it would be necessary to see if CATL’s diversification towards storage, energy services and internationalization builds a sufficient barrier. Cover image | CATL In Xataka | China and the US are dancing the AI ​​dance. And more and more they dance ‘agarraos’

CATL is the largest battery manufacturer in the world and has a new goal: electrify the entire sea

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CATL, the Chinese giant that dominates the global battery market for electric vehicles, it has become entrenched to move towards a new front: the electrification of maritime transport. It makes more sense than it seems, but it is still a great technical challenge. Although the company is not caught by surprise. Below these lines we tell you all the details. What you are already doing. The company, which controls 37% of the global market for batteries for electric cars and 22% of the energy storage market in electrical networks and data centers, has been working in the naval sector since 2017. It has so far deployed its battery systems on about 900 vessels, although mainly on small ships operating near the Chinese coast, in ports or on rivers. Its subsidiary dedicated specifically to powering ships already exists, and this year it plans to more than double the team’s staff, reaching around 500 people, according to confirmed Su Yi, the head of that division, told the Financial Times. Why now. As the media shares, the maritime sector is responsible for 3% of global carbon emissions, and the International Maritime Organization has set itself a goal halve those emissions by 2050. But there is another more recent catalyst that has made many companies reconsider: the recent escalation of war between the United States and Israel against Iran and the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The war in the Middle East has once again highlighted the fragility of energy supply chains and CATL has a good margin of maneuver there. According to counted To FT Neil Beveridge, an analyst at Bernstein specializing in energy in China, the long-term consequence of this type of situation will be an acceleration of the “global mega-migrant towards electrification.” CATL shares on the Shenzhen stock exchange have risen about 13% since the conflict with Iran broke out. The challenges. Electrifying boats is not like electrifying cars, up to this point I think we are all clear. But seriously, batteries have a much lower energy density than traditional fuels, making them impractical for long-distance ocean crossings. The middle shared the study by the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Navigation, in which they concluded that the most promising approach in the short term is hybrid: combining electric propulsion with combustion engines. Added to this are extra risks that come from the marine environment itself: greater exposure to humidity and salinity, much more difficult evacuation conditions in the event of a fire, and the need for more demanding maintenance than in any car. Replicate the truck business model. CATL does not want to limit itself to selling batteries, as it wants to build an entire infrastructure around it, just as share in FT. It already operates in China a network of battery exchange points for trucks on highways, and now intends to take that same model to the sea. The idea is that ship operators can change their batteries in port without having to charge them, which would also eliminate that cost from the ship’s acquisition price. The company is working with municipalities and ports to develop this ecosystem from scratch; Cities like Guangzhou, one of China’s major shipbuilding centers, already offer subsidies for electric-powered vessels, according to share the middle. A personal story. There is a rather curious detail in all this. And just as account FT, Robin Zeng, founder of CATL, studied marine engineering at university before switching to electronics. “Naval engineering was his original discipline and passion,” Su Yi explained to the outlet. It has its advantages, because over time this discipline could end up becoming the next great industrial transformation of your company. Financial muscle. CATL closed 2025 with a net profit of 72.2 billion yuan (about 10.4 billion dollars), 42% more than the previous year, driven mainly by demand for energy storage. From this position of financial strength, the company has the muscle to invest long-term in a sector where margins are still uncertain. We’ll see how the company ends up doing. Cover image | Wikipedia and Elias In Xataka | In 2022, Europe forced energy companies to swallow the cost of the gas crisis. Now she’s willing to do the same.

Plastic is the great recycling nightmare. Car battery acid aspires to be the great nightmare of plastic

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Have a problem with recycling. Thus, in general and even in countries that the more they try and complicate things. But, specifically, we have a problem with plastic recycling. It is a difficult and therefore expensive process, rather than producing new plastic, which leads to a scenario in which potential waste accumulates. To complicate things further, there are many types of plasticsand some are terribly difficult to recycle. But the University of Cambridge has had an idea: a solar reactor to destroy those difficult plastics. And the secret ingredient is car battery acid. The data. Before entering the ‘invention‘ from Cambridge, let’s go with some context. Recycling is not collecting, and vice versa. An example of this is Japan, a country in which there are areas in which there are 45 different categories of garbage that citizens must separate and where only 20% is recycled. In Spain, with an infinitely less obsessive systemwe are around 39%. And what is not recycled is burned in Japan and sent to landfills in Spain. Focusing on plastic and according to Cambridge researchers, the world produces 400 million tons per year and only 18% is recycled. And, as I say, there are plastics such as nylon or polyurethane that are particularly complex to recycle because their chemical structure is very resistant, which makes breaking them down complex and very expensive. plastic fulminator. This is where the discovery of the University of Cambridge comes into play. What they have developed is a solar-powered reactor that uses a very special ingredient: car battery acid. This component breaks the structural chains of the polymers into more basic chemical blocks and, therefore, easier to assimilate, such as ethylene glycol. Once the new material is obtained, a very special photocatalyst is what allows it to be converted into hydrogen and acetic acid, putting an end to that ‘rebellious’ plastic. By fluke. The team of researchers comments that the discovery was practically an accident since they knew that battery acid could be used for the process, but it was not convenient because, just as it melts plastics, it ‘eats’ the catalysts. Theirs, however, held out, and it turns out to be cheap and scalable. It is a photocatalyst composed of carbon nitride functionalized with cyanamide and integrated with molybdenum disulfide promoted with cobalt. Lots of text to say that it is a hybrid material specifically designed to remain stable in a strongly acidic environment. According to the team, it is economical and solves two problems at once: it dissolves difficult plastics and reuses battery acid that usually ends up as waste after extracting its lead content for resale. Future. In the tests, the team points out that the system has worked for more than 260 hours without losing performance and works with the aforementioned plastics, but also with that of the plastic bottles They are also not particularly easy to deal with. They claim that their discovery offers a potential cost reduction in recycling tasks because, in addition, reusable hydrogen is produced in the process. The key here is finding a way to collect the battery acid before it is neutralized for uninterrupted use to break down plastics. The team comments that they do not promise to solve the problem, but they demonstrate how waste can become a resource. new life. This approach approaches the problem from the angle of decomposition, but there are other proposals to give these plastics a second life. Because ‘melting’ them may be expensive, but if they are put into presses they can be turned directly into bricks or paving stones for the streets. This is what Nzambi Matee proposes, a Kenyan materials engineer who has proposed convert that waste into construction material. Like the University of Cambridge experiment, it addresses two problems at the same time: recycling and creating necessary non-polluting construction elements, and this idea is catching on because the authorities have given the green light to use this 2.0 brick to pave the streets of Nairobi. Returning to battery acid, the business arm of the University of Cambridge is looking to commercialize the company, but now the most complicated thing remains: making it a standard. Images | Cambridge University (Beverly Low) In Xataka | The big problem with nuclear energy has always been its waste. Russia can now recycle them up to five times

MG reveals the secrets of MG SolidCore Battery, the first semi-solid batteries for electric cars that will arrive in Europe

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Without the light effects that precede a big announcement but with the security of someone who knows they have something good on their hands. MG met us in Frankfurt, met us on the outskirts of the city and put it before our eyes. The car and its tools. The weapons to continue gaining ground in a battle that seems long. Because with a quick presentation and a talk with its managers, the Chinese company revealed the two great advances with which it intends to continue gaining ground in the European automobile market: a new hybrid system and, above all, its semi-solid state batteries that will arrive with the new MG4 Urban EVa kind of evolution of the current MG4 Electric with which it will coexist in the market. In 2025, MG was the brand with Chinese capital that achieved the best results in Europe. Also in our country, where it reached 45,163 registered units. The formula for success has been based on the launch of vehicles for the access range. Cars at low prices, very spacious and equipped. But, above all, very competitive if we compare them with the competition. The strategy is paying off. Both in vehicles with combustion engines, where the brand does not have to pay tariffs, and with the MG4 Electric, which became among the best sellers in many European countries. The recipe at that time was simple: attractive price, good interior space and versions with a lot of power. Now, MG seeks to take a qualitative leap. Continue convincing and gaining ground in those who are undecided. But, above all, they bring technology that is currently not available to any other brand. Some semi-solid batteries to capture the market Our gazes, therefore, were pointed at the stage where the brand representatives were passing, but what was truly important was behind us. There, behind a curtain, the new MG4 EV Urban, a compact electric car that wants to position itself as the most advanced electric car of the moment. At least if we pay attention to its battery. At 4.44 meters long, the new MG electric car is a canonical compactor, of those that continue to triumph in the European market. To test it we will have to wait a few months but we were able to sit in it for the first time and see first-hand that we are facing a qualitative leap in quality in the interior. The car does not represent an aesthetic revolution on the outside and, of course, is less striking than the current MG4 Electric. But packaging does win. Inside, materials have improved and the perception of quality has risen. The screens are accompanied by physical buttons to control the climate and volume with wheels and controls that offer good touch. The sound of the speakers surprised me with their good quality (yes, I have to say that I don’t have the best ear among the staff). Xataka). And it has interesting details such as the controls that we already saw in the MGS6 EV on the steering wheel or a slightly rough mobile phone wireless charging surface so that the phone does not move. The new MG4 We will talk about all this in greater detail when we can get our hands on it to taste it in motion. Until then we will delve into the technology with which they want to hit the table with batteries that they already mass-produce. They are called “MG SolidCore Battery”. Because the MG4 EV Urban will be the first electric car in Europe to use semi-solid state batteries. With the promise that the car will not face a superlative extra cost. On the contrary, they told us that it will move in figures similar to the current ones. At the moment, the MG bestseller is around 38,000 euros but with the brand’s aid and discounts it is currently below 28,000 euros. What are these semi-solid batteries? It is the first step before jumping to solid batteries, the great promise of the electric car. They are energy accumulators that improve each and every one of the current aspects of LFP or NCM batteries, the most common on the market. Currently, these batteries use electrolytes that use liquid electrolytes to move lithium ions between the electrodes and thus generate electricity. With each discharge, lithium ions travel from the anode to the cathode through the liquid electrolyte. There the electricity is produced that is used by the motors. With recharging, the electrolyte takes the opposite path. Solid state batteries promise to forget about this liquid. This will allow, if the technique advances sufficiently, to have batteries with very ambitious ranges (more than 1,000 kilometers are targeted), in a reduced size and with more powerful charging and discharging capacity. And maintaining their security. The semi-solid state battery is the intermediate step. MG claims that the electrolyte liquid takes up around 20% of a conventional battery right now. With its new batteries, that liquid barely reaches 5%. Solidifying that space allows them to increase the nominal voltage of the battery and therefore also improve energy density. MG points out that these new batteries reach a density of 400 Wh/kg. Part of the secret is that the mobility of lithium ions increases their possibilities, they go from moving in a one-dimensional (LFP) or two-dimensional (NCM) to three-dimensional movement using the solid electrolyte. What does this translate into? The batteries of the new MG4 Urban EV will be smaller but will be able to travel the same number of kilometers as the current model. Although no specific figures have been confirmed, the leap forward should be qualitative because It is an evolution that feeds on itself.. If the battery is denser, it can be smaller to travel the same number of kilometers. At the same time, the weight of this accumulator is lower and the car is more efficient, resulting in better consumption data and, therefore, autonomy. But it also has other types of advantages such as less … Read more

The POCO with 8,500 mAh battery drops in price, offers on Google phones, Apple laptops and more. Hunting Bargains

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After the Spring Sale Festival, the stores have not stood still and have been launching a good assortment of offers on devices such as mobile phones, computers (even Apple) or televisions. Are you looking for the best deal of the week? Well, stay, we are going to review the best offers we have found these days. Nintendo Switch 2 + game of your choice The price could vary. We earn commission from these links POCO X8 Pro Max by 429.99 eurosthe new mobile phone from the Xiaomi family that incorporates a huge 8,500 mAh battery. MacBook Air M4 by 899 eurosone of the Apple computers with the best quality-price ratio. Google Pixel 10a by 466.65 euros when registering in the store, the latest mobile phone launched by Google with a more reasonable price. nintendo switch 2 by 459 eurosthe console with a gift video game, to choose from four. Philips 85PUS8510 by 969 eurosa huge television that comes with a free sound bar. POCO X8 Pro Max If there is something that the new generation of the POCO X stands out for, it is the model. X8 Pro Maxwhich comes to put its cards on the table with a huge 8,500 mAh battery and an introductory offer: 429.99 euros in the official store, although you can select an additional discount coupon of 20 euros. It also includes two months of YouTube Premium and three months of Spotify Premium. The battery of POCO X8 Pro Max It is what draws the most attention, both for the capacity in milliamps (which will last for several days of use) and for the 100W fast chargingwhich allows it to be recharged in a short time. It also features a 6.83-inch screen and the MediaTek Dimensity 9500s processor. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links MacBook Air M4 Some stores have lowered the price of MacBook Air M4leaving it for 899 euros in which it is one of the best we have seen to date. It may no longer be Apple’s cheapest model (now it is the MacBook Neo), but it is very interesting thanks to its battery up to 18 hours of navigationits weight of 1.24 kg or its M4 chip, which offers excellent performance at all times. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10a If you register at MediaMarkt you can take the Google Pixel 10a cheaper. Yes, by doing so its price automatically drops from 549 euros to 466.65 eurosso we are talking about a good discount considering that it was launched recently. It stands out mainly for its screen, which offers a good brightness, good resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate to view content very fluidly. In addition, its camera module is integrated, so nothing stands out. Google Pixel 10a (128GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 The nintendo switch 2 has dropped in price at MediaMarkt. Your discount is only 10 euros, but… you can get a free video game. Accessing the console in the store, below allows you to select one of four video games, and you will get it for free. That is, the console and a video game per 459 euros. You can also choose the Nintendo Switch 2 pack with Mario Kart World for 499 euros and one of four games to choose from. These are the ones you can choose: Kirby Air Riders. Hades 2. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Banishment. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond. Nintendo Switch 2 + game of your choice The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Philips 85PUS8510 On the other hand, if you are looking for a huge TV, be careful what PcComponentes has on offer: a pack that includes a Philips 85PUS8510 smart TV along with a Philips TAB4000 sound bar. All this for 969 euros. The most notable thing is the television, since it mounts a 85 inch QLED screen and is compatible with Ambilight and Dolby Atmos. Philips 85PUS8510 + Philips TAB4000 + Movistar Plus+ (six months) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Xiaomi, Apple, Google, Nintendo, Philips In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

the Chinese battery giant is becoming more and more giant

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CATL, the world’s largest manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles, closed 2025 with a net profit of 10.4 billion euros at the exchange rate, 42% more than the previous year. It controls almost 40% of the global market and there is no rival in sight that can overshadow it. It is also a consequence of the transition we are experiencing. We tell you all the details. Why does it matter? When talking about the transition to electric vehicles, the focus usually falls on car manufacturers, but there is a company that makes money from practically all of them, regardless of who sells the most cars. And CATL It’s something like NVIDIA of the automotive sector. If an electric car has a battery, there is almost a 40% chance that it is yours. And the percentage is increasing. The numbers. The company recently published its annual results. The report showed total revenues of 423.7 billion yuan (about 58 billion euros), 17% more than in 2024. Net profit reached 72.2 billion yuan, nearly 10.4 billion euros, which represents a jump of 42% and the highest annual growth in three years. In the fourth quarter alone, profit increased 57% year-on-year, beating forecasts by a wide margin. The electric car battery business represents 75% of revenue. On the other hand, energy storage, another of its businesses, contributes another 15%. As a consequence, its cash flow grows by 37%, to 133.2 billion yuan. Market share. According to data According to South Korean analysis firm SNE Research, CATL closed 2025 with a 39.2% share of the global electric vehicle battery market, up from 38% the previous year. It is the ninth consecutive year in which it leads the global ranking. In fact, it is the only company in the world with a share greater than 30%. Its sales of lithium ion batteries have reached 661 GWh, 39% more. Power batteries (those in cars) totaled 541 GWh, and stationary storage batteries, 121 GWh. Korea loses ground. The three large South Korean battery manufacturers, LG Energy Solution, SK On and Samsung SDI, have seen their accumulated share fall by 10.4% last January, according to collect Automotive World analysis. There are several reasons for this, but the most notable have to do above all with changes in US trade policy, which have weakened supply chains in its local market, and increasing dependency of global automakers on Chinese suppliers for offering lower-cost products. CATL gains share abroad and on top of that its direct competitors lose it. Your most profitable business is outside China. Precisely, income from abroad represents more than 30% of CATL’s total, and its gross margin in those markets reaches 31.4%, compared to the 24% it obtains in China. In other words, the more you sell abroad, the more you earn for each battery. And that turns its international expansion not only into a volume growth strategy, but also into an engine that offers increasingly greater profitability. Beyond the electric car. “The new energy industry is at a new historic turning point,” counted the company’s president, Zeng Yuqun, at the meeting with investors. Here he points to electric aviation, ships, data centers and large-scale energy storage as new fronts for the company’s expansion. CATL already leads the global market for batteries for stationary storage for the fifth consecutive year. At the end of 2025, it had six large R&D centers and 24 factories around the world, with an installed capacity of 772 GWh and another 321 GWh under construction. Two shadows in the painting. Although it is all good news for the company, there are also nuances. And the gross margins in car batteries and storage were slightly reduced in 2025 due to pressure on raw material costs and the price war in the sector. The company has also recorded asset impairment losses of around 9 billion yuan, linked in part to the suspension of its activity at the Jianxiawo lithium mine, paralyzed since August due to a licensing conflict. Production is expected to resume in June this year. On the other hand, we must not lose sight of its direct competitor in the domestic market: BYD and its new Blade battery second generation, which according to the company, is capable of charging from 10% to 97% in nine minutes, which could put CATL in a bind in the ultra-fast charging segment. Although for now BYD too has its own problems in China, since its share in batteries has fallen slightly and has accumulated six consecutive months of decline in domestic sales. Cover image | CHUTTERSNAP and CATL In Xataka | Finding the cheapest gas station in your area is very simple thanks to this very powerful tool

We don’t know what to do with the old coal mines. Switzerland’s idea is to turn them into a giant “battery”

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In the bowels of the Bierzo region of León, where coal was the absolute king for decades, the silence of the abandoned and flooded galleries is about to be broken. But this time there will be no pickaxes, no minecarts, no black ore. The new gold of the mining basin is water, and those in charge of extracting its potential come from the Alps. The Swiss energy company Alpiq has set its eyes on this ruined industrial legacy to transform it into a colossal natural “battery” that promises to be the energy engine of the future in Spain. A million-dollar purchase in El Bierzo. The news that has shaken the local and international energy panorama is the acquisition of the “CDR Navaleo” macroproject by the Swiss multinational Alpiq, as detailed in their press release. However, as local media describethis pumped hydroelectric energy storage project had initially been developed by Erbiergía, a company promoted and controlled by the well-known mining businessman Manuel Lamelas Viloria. Despite the sale, the Bercian promoter will maintain a stake in the company to continue collaborating and supporting its development on the ground. The project figures are colossal. Although two years ago the project has already obtained a powerful grant Of 35.5 million euros from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (Miteco), the total investment necessary to build this megastructure is much greater. Now, as advanced in ElDiario.esthe estimated budget exceeds 300 million euros, but other sources raise the investment figure above 400 million, placing it in a range of between 420 and 450 million euros. And why Spain? To understand the magnitude of Navaleo, you have to look at the sky. Spain has very ambitious goals of penetration of renewable energies, such as solar and wind, but these sources are intermittent: it is not always sunny or the wind blows when we turn on the switch at home. Therefore, the electrical system urgently needs “storage and flexibility to guarantee the stability of the network,” explained by the Swiss company. That is where this plant comes in, which will contribute 535 megawatts (MW) of flexible capacity to the Spanish grid, according to local media. To get an idea of ​​its size, the current third vice president, Sara Aagesen, noted during a visit to the area that “all residential buildings in the province of León could be supplied with the annual production of this CDR from Navaleo”, as they have collected in The Economist. The impact transcends Spanish borders. To understand the phenomenon, the importance of infrastructure must be configured. The European Commission has included Navaleo on its list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI)highlighting its strategic value for the energy security of the entire continent, which also opens the door to better financing through the European Investment Bank. For the Swiss company, which has been operating in the Spanish market for 25 years, this is a major milestone: This is its first large-scale hydroelectric project outside of Switzerland. The engineering behind the “battery”. The technical mechanism is as fascinating as it is colossal. The facility will operate through a closed-circuit pumped hydroelectric energy storage system. In practice, it consists of taking advantage of groundwater from old mining operations, as explained in the local media. The system will pump water from the Tremor River area to a higher elevation, where it will be stored in a pond. When the country needs electricity, that water will be released through a large pipe so that it passes through a turbine and generates energy. This closed-loop design will provide the electrical grid with at least eight hours of uninterrupted energy storage, literally acting as an immense rechargeable water battery. But an abandoned mine? Used old coal mine poses obvious doubts about toxicity. Currently, abandoned mines are flooded and their waters contain minerals and contaminants. Far from being a problem, this is one of the greatest added values ​​of the project. The plant is called “CDR” precisely because it is a Reversible Treatment Plant. “Through our asset we are going to offer flexibility and storage, but we are also going to offer an environmental benefit. We are going to drain the contaminated water from the mines and purify it,” explains Amédée Murisier, director of Alpiq in statements to The Economist. In this way, an environmental liability and degraded land is transformed into a clean energy asset. Furthermore, viability is assured: the company already has a water concession granted for a period of 75 years, which guarantees long-term operational continuity. Forecasts and deadlines. The macroproject will extend through the Bercian municipalities of Torre del Bierzo, Castropodame, Congosto and Molinaseca, areas hard hit by the closure of mining. As for the deadlines, there are certain nuances. While the Viloria Group I hoped to start construction this year, the new Swiss owners apply their well-known precision and caution. Amédée Murisier warns that there is still a year and a half of work ahead to refine the geological studies and detailed engineering before making the final investment decision. What is certain, and what all actors agree on, is that the plant will enter commercial operation in the early 2030s. Where before Leonese miners went down into the bowels of the earth to extract coal with their pickaxes, in a few years thousands of liters of purified water will flow, pushed by Swiss technology. The Navaleo project is not only a work of pharaonic engineering; It is the perfect metaphor for the energy transition. A textbook circular economy that demonstrates how the old industrial ghosts of Bierzo can be reconverted, given a facelift and end up being the master key to ensuring the green and electric future of Spain. Image | freepik Xataka | Far from Grazalema and the reservoirs, Andalusia has another serious problem: completely collapsed mining ponds

Samsung has insisted on maintaining the identity of the S26 Ultra. The price to pay is the battery

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The Samsung Galaxy S26 They’re here, and to no one’s surprise, they’re extremely similar to last year’s. The time of having new mobile phones that are clearly better than those of the previous generation has long passed and we have seen that most of the new features come from the software side. Even so, in this family we see improvements in one of its models: in the S26 Ultra. Improvements in cameras, in power with the Next generation Snapdragon and one privacy screen which still seems like a magic trick to me. It also has a battery from the past: 5,000 mAh when China is betting on figures of 6,000 or 7,000 mAh. And there is a very simple explanation that has nothing to do with Samsung’s conservatism: you can’t have everything. And if the Galaxy S26 Ultra wants to maintain its hallmark, which makes it different in a calendar full of mobile phones that are very similar to each other, it must make sacrifices. I’m talking about the S-Pen. The sacrifice of the Galaxy S26 Ultra that… makes sense We are not going to fool ourselves: Samsung, Google and Apple are three companies that are being too conservative both with battery capacity and loads. They put in just enough so that this charge can be considered ‘fast’ while in China we see phones with new generation batteries that also have much faster charges. You may think that they do not bet on ultra-large batteries with crazy charges for a degradation issuebut it is really the Chinese companies that offer long-term tests on the charging cycles of their batteries. And an 80% degradation in a 7,000 mAh battery is not the same as in a 5,000 mAh battery. The problem is that, although the 4,900 mAh of the Samsung Galaxy S26+ They are unjustifiable from the user’s point of view, the 5,000 mAh of the Galaxy S26 Ultra is more understandable if we look at the insides of the mobile. As an example, I am going to put an image of the interior of the S25 Ultra of the video by JerryRigEverything: Interior of the S25 Ultra. Look how little space the battery has | Screenshot of JerryRigEverything Here we have several interesting things. On the one hand, the enormous space occupied by the SIM tray. Well, really, what it takes up… everything. More than a third of the rear is the plate with the SoC and the cameras, the bottom part is dominated by the speaker, the SIM slot and the USB-C port. and then we have an element that takes up a lot of space: the S-Pen. The SIM slot takes up a lot | Screenshot of JerryRigEverything The pen is stored inside the cell phone and takes up a good portion of it. It’s very easy to see the amount of space you’re stealing from a battery that’s already being suffocated by the rest of the components. And we cannot say that the S25 Ultra is small, precisely. Without the pencil in its compartment, we can better see what the battery is losing | Screenshot of JerryRigEverything When Apple removed headphone jack port He did it for several reasons. One was to be able to sell ourselves wireless headphones more expensive. The other was to scratch millimeters that could be used with the battery. The same thing happens with the most recent movement to banish physical SIM cards. In mobile phones where everything is extremely small and compact, the battery gaining only a few millimeters translates into greater capacities. Because, as much as Chinese mobile phones, especially the folding onesare mounting denser new generation batteries, it is still a space game: the bigger, the more capacity. At least with current technology. The S26 Ultra not only keeps the S-Penbut it is also somewhat thinner than the S25 Ultra while including a larger vapor chamber. No matter how much Samsung makes a denser battery, physically there are elements that steal internal space. This means that the 5,000 mAh must be maintained. Because if in other mobile phones, such as the aforementioned folding ones or in the ultra-thin ones like the iPhone Airwe see that the battery is the protagonist, in the S26 Ultra, in the Ultra family in general, it is just one more element. And here I have mixed feelings. It is true that it is shocking to see a mobile phone costing more than 1,400 euros with a 60 W charge and a 5,000 mAh battery when models like the Honor Magic8 Pro or the OPPO Find X9 Pro with more than 6,000 mAh or 75.00 mAh respectively and 100 W charges. However, the S26 Ultra remains unique in being special for something that many people continue to appreciate. The S-Pen is a very cool component that, although it has been losing functionalityallows us to write on the screen, edit documents and photos much more precisely than with our finger and, ultimately, it is an element that continues to exist because Samsung believes that its users continue to find value in it. If this were not the case, they would have long since loaded an element that makes the production of the mobile phone more expensive and prevents them from moving forward in another direction (adding more battery, for example). Therefore… yes, the S-Pen is mainly responsible for the 5,000 mAh of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. But, at the same time, it is what means that, in an era in which practically all mobile phones are the same, The Ultra continue to have that “special thing” that differentiates them from all the others. And, honestly: I hate Samsung for maintaining that hallmark (but let’s see if they can find the formula for the new silicon-carbon batteries that other manufacturers are already implementing). Photos | JerryRigEveryting, Xataka In Xataka | We already know why mobile phones with 6,000mAh are not arriving in Europe: there is a clear person responsible

Electric car battery makers are retooling to make batteries… for AI data centers

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In the United States there are a slowdown in the electric vehicle industry, which has caused more and more manufacturers in the sector to convert their business. According to account Financial Times, ten North American factories that produced batteries for electric cars are allocating a good part of their production to energy storage systems for AI data centers. It is the latest industry to readjust around artificial intelligence. The change of course. The media shares data from the consulting firm CRU, which states that these ten plants have canceled enough capacity to produce batteries for 2 million electric vehicles. Of these, seven will focus primarily on the energy storage systems (ESS) market. Among the names involved are Ford, which is converting a factory in Kentucky, and Stellantis along with its partner Samsung SDI, which are converting production lines at its Indiana plant. General Motors is also considering producing its own energy storage batteries, according to declared its head of batteries, Kurt Kelty, to the Financial Times. Why data centers need batteries. Data centers that process AI models require uninterrupted power supply to protect against blackouts or voltage fluctuations. With the construction boom of these centers in the United States, storage batteries have become a critical component of infrastructure. This opens up an alternative revenue stream for automotive companies struggling with electric vehicles. The Tesla example. It is worth taking a look at the numbers of Elon Musk’s company, since in addition to producing vehicles it also manufactures energy storage systems such as Megapack and Powerwall. In this sense, its battery business is turning out to be tremendously profitable, since the company reported income for energy and storage of $12.8 billion in its last quarter, a growth of 27% year-on-year. In 2021, that figure barely reached 2.8 billion. Meanwhile, its revenue from electric vehicle sales has fallen 9% to $64 billion. Political context difficult. Just like account FT, Since the Trump administration eliminated tax incentives for electric vehicle buyers put in place during the Biden era and lowered emissions standards, the electric vehicle market in the United States has seen a slowdown. This has led BloombergNEF to revise its forecast downwards: from expecting electric vehicles to represent 48% of total car sales in 2030, they now project only 27%. Electric vehicles currently account for about 8% of new car sales in the United States. The aid that is maintained. As well as mention In the middle, although these subsidies have been eliminated, the administration retains generous incentives for battery manufacturers: a production credit of $35 per kilowatt-hour and a 30% tax credit for investments in energy storage. In addition, tariffs on Chinese storage batteries are around 60%, allowing manufacturers to produce in the United States at prices close to parity with Asian imports. Between the lines. It is also worth highlighting important nuances. CRU’s Sam Adham counted to FT that battery manufacturers will not necessarily pass on what they save on costs to their customers (they may increase their margins, for what). In addition, according to the FT, the Korean companies that lead the production of storage batteries in the United States have less experience with the lithium iron phosphate technology used by these systems, compared to their Chinese rivals. It is not a total reconversion, for now. Wood Mackenzie’s data suggest that electric vehicles will continue to absorb a greater proportion of battery installations than energy storage until the end of 2030. “If there is a rebound in demand for electric vehicles, companies that have switched to storage systems could be left behind,” said Milan Thakore, an analyst at the consultancy. More sectors than They pivot towards AI. From the Semafor newsletter, also they mention another very interesting sector that is beginning to convert its business towards AI: cryptocurrency miners. And according to Morgan Stanley, facilities dedicated to cryptocurrency mining are seeing a more profitable business in the creation of data centers for AI. The economics of cryptocurrency mining have gotten worse and worse since the reward is lower, and converting these facilities into infrastructure for artificial intelligence is much more profitable. According to the calculations Morgan Stanley, transforming all bitcoin mining facilities in the United States could reduce the electrical capacity deficit for data centers by between 10 and 15 gigawatts. Cover image | CHUTTERSNAP and İsmail Enes Ayhan In Xataka | If AI is the “weapon” of the future, the US is already investing 25% of all world military spending in it

Two cell phones with a lot of battery, an eReader as big as a tablet, offers on TVs and more. Hunting Bargains

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Today is Bargain Hunting Friday, the last of a month of January in which we have seen discounts that could rival other times in which the price of devices tends to drop a lot. Therefore, in this article we have gathered the best of the best in technology offers with a couple of cell phones with battery life for several days, a very large e-book reader and much more. PocketBook InkPad Eo by 390.73 eurosan eReader with a 10.3-inch color screen. Honor Magic8 Lite by 359.10 eurosthe brand’s new mobile phone that comes with gifts valued at 257.99 euros. Fire TV Stick 4K Plus by 39.99 eurosagain it is about the dongle from Amazon with the best quality-price ratio. Oneplus 15 by 959 eurosa mobile phone with a battery that can last you three or four days without using the charger. Hisense 65E63QT by 359 eurosa fairly low price for a 65-inch TV. PocketBook InkPad Eo Normally eReaders are between six and eight inches in size, but there are some with larger screens that can be interesting for reading comics or magazines or simply to have larger print size. He PocketBook InkPad Eo is precisely where it stands out: it costs 390.73 euros on PcComponentes and comes with a color screen of 10.3 inchessimilar to the format we find on tablets. Your Wacom screen is colorwhich together with the size is ideal for reading comics and magazines. It includes a stylus to draw or paint and as icing on the cake its operating system is Androidwhich allows you to download a good number of apps. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Honor Magic8 Lite Honor launched a new mobile yesterday that is not only attractive in its Reddish Brown color, but also comes with a good battery. He Honor Magic8 Lite right now it’s on sale for 359.10 euros with the coupon ADTO10 and includes three gifts valued at 257.99 euros: Honor Earbuds Clip headphones, a 66W Honor SuperCharge charger and a pack with a protective case, magnetic ring, magnetic wallet and strap. One of its strong points lies in its 7,500 mAh battery which, as we were able to verify in our analysis, reaches a autonomy of two and a half or three days. It also has resistance to drops from 2.5 meters in height and has the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor. Not bad for a “Lite” mobile. Honor Magic8 Lite (256 GB) + headphones + charger + accessory pack The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Fire TV Stick 4K Plus After a few weeks in which we only saw the Fire TV Stick 4K Select with a discount, Amazon has finally decided to lower the price of the rest of the models. Again, the one that has the best quality-price ratio is the Fire TV Stick 4K Pluswhich for 39.99 euros offers a great experience. This is the standard model that I would recommend to anyone (unless we want the power of 4K Max). It offers 4K resolution and is compatible with formats Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Plus, its performance is pretty good and of course it comes with Alexa built-in. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Oneplus 15 If the Honor mobile battery runs out, be careful because the Oneplus 15 It is one of the best in this section. At Powerplanet it has dropped to 959 euros in its 512 GB configuration and it is a mobile perfect if you are looking for power, battery and an exquisite design. Perhaps the 7,300 mAh battery has fewer milliamps than that of the Honor, but after analyzing it we were able to verify that it reaches a autonomy of between three and four days. In addition, it comes equipped with the processor Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5the best in processors for Android mobiles. Oneplus 15 (16GB, 512GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Hisense 65E63QT Finally, if you are looking for a good television that also has a fairly large screen, and you don’t want to spend a lot of money, Amazon right now has a smart TV on sale Hisense 65E63QTa TV that stands out mainly for its 65-inch panel. Its price is 359 euros. Beyond its size, it is also worth mentioning that it is a television compatible with Dolby Vision and HDR10has three HDMI 2.1 ports and comes with the voice assistant Alexa. In addition, it includes a Game Plus mode dedicated to video games. Hisense 65E63QT (65 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | PocketBook, Honor, Amazon, Oneplus, Hisense In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best Amazon Fire TV. Which one to buy and recommended models to convert your TV into a smart TV depending on use

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